Local Government cuts: They say the crisis is over...
“There is likely to be at least a 10 per cent budget squeeze [in local government] from next year, possibly more if the Conservatives win the next general election”, reports the Financial Times (11 November). Since much that local councils do is a matter of legal obligations, with their costs largely fixed beyond each council’s control, ten per cent is a huge squeeze. It comes from probable cuts by the New Labour government in the local government “settlement” for April 2010 (tax money redistributed from central government to local government); from reductions in local income, from fees and...